Alzheimer's Answer Looms

WASHINGTON - Harvard Medical School researchers have uncovered a new clue
to the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
The brains of people with the
memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of
beta-amyloid, a sticky protein.
But there long has been a question whether
this is a cause of the disease or a side effect.
Now, researchers have caused Alzheimer’s symptoms in rats by injecting them
with one particular form of beta-amyloid.
Those rats had impaired memory
function, especially for newly learned behaviors.
When the mouse brains were inspected, the density of brain cells was
reduced by 47 percent with the beta-amyloid seeming to affect synapses, the
connections between cells that are essential for communication between
them.
The research, for the first time, showed the effect of a particular
type of beta-amyloid in the brain, said Morrison-Bogorad.- Associated
Press

Huh? What? Who are you?